We Are What We Are
by Sergeant Turtle
Summary: Afterburn #1. Where there are superheroes, there are supervillains. Hiro and the team must now face one of the new dangers haunting San Fransokyo – the vengeful ninja known as Kage – while simultaneously investigating a slew of gang-related crimes.
1. Acquainted With the Night

**Hi there, BH6 fandom, and welcome to the Afterburn universe! This starts post-movie. Please feel free to follow, favourite, and review as the story progresses.  
**

* * *

One: Acquainted With the Night

Kage was not someone you would want to bump into in a dark alley.

Unfortunately, that was the only place you _would_ ever bump into him, so there was never much choice in the matter.

It was on a particularly cold and windy night that a man named Yama, fresh from ripping through an underground bot-fighting tournament, took a shortcut through an alleyway to get to his car - and noticed he wasn't alone. A shadow – the figure of a man – shifted out of a darkened niche and stood before him. He was dressed in clothing similar to that of the legendary ninja who once roamed in clans about the land. Assassins most feared, spies never caught, but with a code of honour almost as noble as the samurai they served.

Any wise man would immediately exercise caution around anyone who showed the slightest sign of their skills.

Yama was _not_ a wise man, and after defeating eleven opponents in the last hour and a half, he was feeling decidedly unbeatable. "Did Goku send you? Tell him he's wasting his time, there's no way he's going to fight back to the top of the food chain.'

No reply. That was unusual. By now a fellow gangster's grunt would generally have blustered out a demand, or at least a reply to his taunt.

So… maybe Goku _hadn't_ sent this one. He turned to go, only to find the man once again in his way. 'Who _are_ you?'

The figure still said nothing, but its arm whipped out faster than a striking cobra, and a knockout dart buried itself in Yama's thick neck. As the sedative began to take effect, he heard a low voice whisper, 'My name is Kage. And my masters have need of your… unique... talents.'

* * *

Across the other side of town, Hiro Hamada was sitting wrapped in a thick blanket on his windowsill, naming constellations. He was supposed to be working on his latest project, but he just didn't feel like he would make any progress tonight.

Tomorrow would have been his _nii-chan'_s twenty-first birthday.

Even though Tadashi was gone, Hiro was still determined to uphold the little tradition they'd been keeping since the younger boy had turned nine, of staying up until midnight on the eve of their birthdays to watch the stars and count koi-bines in the sky above their neighbourhood. Sometimes, if it was a warm night, they'd climb onto the roof for a better view and trace new constellation shapes to "beta-test" the light-line pens Hiro had invented for a joke, making dragons and faces and mathematical diagrams.

Hiro half-heartedly scribbled a few Pythagorean theorems on the glass of the window next to his calculations for working out the relative area of Orion.

It wasn't the same.

He knew this was the first of many times he would find himself staying up alone, but Hiro had a feeling he wasn't going to get used to it in a hurry.

He looked down to the windowsill, beside where his bare feet peeked out from beneath the blanket, and picked up the paper lantern that sat there.

Hiro reached out for the tall candle that Baymax handed him and lit the lantern wick. The flame began to suffuse the room with a muted light and the small boy gave a quiet huff of amusement as the robot tilted his head, clearly fascinated to see the lantern begin to fill with the heated air. Hiro slid the window open and looked back out at the sky.

A cool breeze ruffled his messy thatch of hair, and as the clock on the desk marked twelve, he released the lantern out into the night where it quickly rose to join the lights in the sky before vanishing from sight.

_Happy birthday, Tada-nii. I miss you._

Baymax's voice broke into Hiro's thoughts. 'Hiro, would you like me to play my store of videos now?'

'In a minute, Baymax,' replied the boy as he huddled further into the blanket, his eyes red. The robot blinked slowly, before enfolding his young charge in his marshmallow-like arms and activating his internal heating unit. 'Tadashi is here, Hiro. And so am I.'

A wet sniffle broke free of the bundle on the windowsill, but Hiro smiled – just a little – and returned the hug. 'I know, Baymax. I know.'

'I will play the videos for you now.'

'Okay.'

'_This is Tadashi Hamada, and this is the first test of my robotics project…'_


	2. The Raven

**Hello again! Next chapter time now that I'm back from my holiday. I know this probably seems a bit slow, but I promise, the next chapter is where it ramps up. I just have to set the scene first. Enjoy! :)  
**

**\- ST**

* * *

Two: The Raven

'Hiro! Time to get up, you'll be late!'

Aunt Cass' voice broke into the subconscious of the tiny genius and with a jolt he woke, only to fall out of bed and hit the floor with a muffled 'ow'.

Hiro heard Baymax inflate and groaned. No, he couldn't deal with his over-literal, smothery robot when he was running on four hours of sleep. 'I'm _alright_, Baymax, just surprised myself.'

'You have fallen.'

'Gosh, big guy, as if I didn't know that.' Hiro drawled, sarcasm lacing his voice.

'On a scale of-'

'_Not now,_ Baymax. I'm alright, really.'

'Are you certain?'

'Yes, buddy. Very. Now help me get my stuff together and then get in your backpack.'

Twenty minutes later, Hiro had raced out the door after scarfing a quick breakfast, collecting his lunch and a last hug from Aunt Cass, and had stopped just shy of missing the tram. The weekend was finally over, and though yesterday had been hard he was determined that today, he was going to have a _good_ day. He shifted Baymax's pack to a more comfortable position, wincing as his shoulder twinged. Upgrading the robot's charging station to make it more portable had been a small stroke of genius, if he did say so himself. Now he could take his friend everywhere without having a very conspicuous – not to mention very curious – giant marshmallow trailing behind him. It had caused some… interesting… situations beforehand.

SFIT came in sight, and he leapt nimbly onto the sidewalk. He still had some time before Advanced Logic Programming II, so he decided to visit the lab and drop Baymax off. Maybe some of his friends would be there, working on their projects. Fred would almost certainly be present, unless his mascot skills were required.

His guess was correct, as not only did he find Fred – dozing in his chair with a comic book on top of his face – but also Wasabi, who was tidying Gogo's workspace. 'You know she'll kill you if she catches you doing that, and I'm not scraping your twisted blob of a carcass of the floor when she's done.'

'But look at this! She has no concept of order! The wrenches are mixed in with the screwdrivers, and is that _soy sauce?_ Next thing you know, there will be stains on her textbooks! _STAINS!'_

Hiro shook his head, smiling as Wasabi continued to rant, and wondered why the laser engineer only ever seemed to intrude into Gogo's space to clean. Maybe because hers was the messiest. Apart from Fred's little corner, of course, but Wasabi went there as little as possible. Hiro didn't blame him – the mascot's space often looked as if a comics store and a pizza shop had been caught in a tumble-dryer with a leaking lint filter. Very unhygienic.

Entering his own lab, he placed Baymax's charging station in its corner, unlocking the expansion circuit. 'Ow.'

'Hello, Hiro. What are you working on today?'

'Well, in the hour I've got before class, I thought we could maybe fix that busted servo in your arm. Otherwise you'll look really funny when you try to wave at people.

'That would be wise. I do not wish to appear strange.'

Hiro was about to comment, but thought better of it, and spent some time trying to hold back a smile.

* * *

_'So, Kage, you… "picked up"… Yama, as instructed?'_

_'I am confident there will be no missing persons reports for some time. He is feared and respected, but not well-liked.'_

_'Ah, the curse of the bot-fighting champ. Do you have your next target?'_

_'I have.'_

_'…You think it's about time to go for the boy, don't'cha?'_

_'Yes.'_

_'Pick your moment wisely, Kage. This time in partic'lar, we can't have any suspicions of kidnapping. He's just got to disappear.'_

_'Perhaps… interfering in the boy's… extracurricular activities would be the best way.'_

_'This is why I like you. Pick the opportune moment, pal, but for now just keep an eye on him. We can't risk some bunch of losers gettin' the reward that we deserve.'_

* * *

Advanced Logic Programming II was the only class Hiro had that morning, so he headed back to the lab as soon as it was finished. Honey Lemon waved hello from her mixing bench, where she was making something that looked suspiciously volatile. _New chem-ball mix – I'm just testing,_ she mouthed, and Hiro gave her a thumbs-up as he passed through Gogo's now-pristine workspace. _Oh boy. Is Wasabi gonna be in trouble, or is Wasabi gonna be in trouble?_

An almighty screech of fury reached Hiro's ears as he went to open the door of his lab, and he looked back to see Gogo surveying her desk before storming towards Wasabi's lab. _Oh yeah. He's in trouble, alright._

He entered the room, thinking about the new project he was going to start, and stopped stock-still as he caught sight of his robot friend – a Sharpie in his vinyl hand – looking at his reflection in the metallic surface of a 3D printer. Sensor's alerting him to Hiro's presence, Baymax turned to reveal a large black mustache drawn under his optical cameras. 'I have been told that a mustache can be a sign of sophistication. I am not sure that it suits me.'

Hiro blinked slowly, his mouth gaping open at the rather preposterous sentence he'd just heard.

The hilarity began to bubble in his throat, and this time he couldn't hold it back. Baymax watched curiously as the boy rolled around on the floor, roaring with laughter until he had to gasp for breath.

Maybe having a good day wasn't so hard after all.


	3. Author's Note

**ATTENTION ALL READERS! THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT!**

Unfortunately, I am moving my operations over to AO3. I've found that I like the format and tagging system better. I am currently in the process of moving all the currently-posted chapters over, although that may take a few weeks. Regular uploads will then begin again (well, not _regular_ in timing sense, but you know what I mean).

If you'd like to keep following the stories, hop over to AO3 and look for my username, Sergeant_Turtle!

See you on the other side!

\- ST


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